This House Would Frack in Northern Ireland.

The 20th Ordinary Meeting of the 165th Session of the Literific took place on the 27th of March in the Senate Room. We then heard an opening address from our guest chair, Dr Jennifer McKinley, who explained the motion.

Dr Allister Ruffell, Dr Stephen Goss, Green Party MEP and Aaron Beasant were proposing the motion. Ruffell argued that no one source of energy will meet all our needs without a cost in money or to the environment. He explained how fracking works and that a good geological understanding was key. Stephen JPeter Goss said fracking wasn’t a question of whether we should or shouldn’t but that we need to because our demands are increasing and that renewable energy is currently not feasible. Beasant asked what alternatives the proposition would provide, that renewable energy was not viable as you can’t gain energy from something so unpredictable.

Dawn Patterson, No Fracking NI, Ross Brown, Green Party MEP and Ellie Kontarravdis, Green Party candidate for Balmoral, spoke for the opposition. Patterson talked about how people living in fracked areas faced reductions in house values, tourism and farming as well as the effects it would have on the environment and our health. Brown said that research has been done showing leaking methane would have a greater effect on the environment than leaking CO2. He advised the House to reduce emissions and weigh up viability. Kontarravdis said that regulation was nice and beautiful and wonderful and will solve all our problems but that the framework for fracking is not sufficient.

The motion then went to the floor, a vote and the motion was defeated.

Published by The Literific

The Literary & Scientific Society is the debating society at Queen's University Belfast. We meet every at 7pm, Thursday evening during term time in the QUB Senate Room - you can be kept up to date with our website, Facebook and Twitter!
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